I'm sorry for leaving out a few things, but there seems to be a quote limit and this discussion is complex enough without contextual confusion sneaking in.
I'm sorry, I must have missed the part in the evolutionary process where mutation-induced sterility and possible birth defects are a good thing. The type of mutations which are caused by FEV and radiation are not the type of ones which facilitate the process of evolution.
Besides that logic is flawed regardless. The Enclave's mission is to preserve humanity, not a future "evolved from humans" species. The Enclave's firm belief is that they are protecting the last remnants of the human race. dike Richardson so fervently believed this that he was willing to martyr himself to see it completed.
Who created the FEV to begin with? And regarding the supposed sterility and birth defects, I didn't see a whole lot of that in FO3. Did you? Yeah, real world science suggests that this should happen but FO-verse science is a tiny bit different, what with nobody dying from cancer after being hit with radiation and whatnot.
And unless you're arguing, like the Enclave, that all wastelanders aren't actually humans (because they've been exposed to radiation), the above argument is bunk. If you want to argue the Enclave's case here, you're effectively suggesting that wastelanders are really just intelligent monkeys. That argument has actually been used before, to describe a fairly large segment of the American population. The argument was crap then and it's crap now.
Nice that you put words in Autumn's mouth. I'm a firm supporter of Eden, but Autumn never elaborated on his plan at all other than that he was going to protect the wastelanders and distribute water. Truthfully, given Autumn's willingness and desire to fight to the death over the matter of the purifier, I don't doubt his intentions. I do doubt whether it would truly benefit the Enclave itself however.
As far as Autumn and Eden were concerned, the occupation of the purifer was a hostile takeover, a preempitive strike in a time of war, I don't pretend it was anything less.
Given that Autumn at not point showed any concern with wastelander lives, I doubt that he'd fight to the death simply to bring them clean water in a more steady fashion than what the BoS could manage. Obivously he had an Enclave angle and obviously that angle didn't include anything remotely good for the wastelanders.
And a time of war, you say? Against whom? The BoS? The BoS weren't actually doing much at the purifier until the Enclave showed up. Who else? Mere survival? The Enclave has survived for 200 years and nobody would want to exterminate them if they weren't constantly so damned busy killing everybody who aren't Enclave.
Also, once again you have zero proof that Autumn would do any of these thing. Thus your argument is invalidated. "Subjugate" does not mean "slavery with no rights".
Subjugate means to "bring under domination or control, esp. by conquest", according to dictionary.com. You want to tell me how being dominated by a faction that considers itself in a war against you and which doesn't even recognize you as a human being, could possibly constitute anything but complete and utter slavery or offer you any rights? What part of Enclave history gives you the idea that Autumn would suddenly offer wastelanders any rights? Or do you think Autumn wasn't really an Enclaver because he wanted to use a bit of finesse in rebuilding the wasteland, rather than the usual brute force?
What is the Enclave doing for the wastelanders before Autumn? Nothing.
Does that matter? No. Do I care? No.
Obviously you don't. Wastelanders aren't humans because they've suffered radiation. I think that's a bad argument, even with the funny science in the FO-verse. As a consequence of not considering wastelanders humans, you think it's okay to kill them all, if they won't go away by themselves. And you somehow can't see the resemblance such an argument has with the crazy nonsense pretty much any genocidal dike in human history has spewed? No offense, but I'm not sure I believe that.
When did this happen? I don't recall anyone really making that argument (aside as an off-hand joke) in the entire time I've been on this forum.We've pretty much always recognized it as a hostile takeover.
It's going to be slow if I have to trail through old forum posts, so suffice it to say that I could swear having seen, on more than one occation, the memorial being considered property of the US government and thus the Enclave, which means the science team "obviously" trespassed.
The Enclave is however, the legimate government of the United States via COG plans. I'd rather not go into a full argument on this point, but if you press the matter, I think you'll find we're more than capable of giving a solid water-proof argument for our ideas.
I see two problems with that argument. One, the Enclave is only the legitimate government on US territory and if that doesn't include the wasteland then how are the Enclave the legitimate government of the wasteland? Obviously they're not. Consequently the country formerly known as the US of A is gone, which makes it irrelevant whether the Enclave is actually legit or not. Who cares about the legit government of a country that doesn't exist anymore?
Two, it becomes problematic when you take away the constitutional democratic rights of people without due process. You'd need a constitutional definition of what is and isn't a human and you can't do that without actually ammending the constitution. Unfortunatelly you can't ammend the constitution because the constitution itself defines the procedure for that and it does not include any COG exceptions. Thus, with no way of actually getting the states, which are now reduced to rubble, to provide approval of ammendments, the Enclave can't ammend the constitution and redefine what is constitutionally considered a human being.
By the way, a COG rests exclusively on the executive authority by the president. It is not law approved in the congress. Anything that the president doesn't have executive authority to do can also not be done in a COG. Furthermore, it would be the duty of any later president to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution. That means not doing anything that is clearly unconstitutional, particularly not based solely on a former president's executive authority.
The Enclave recognizes that the United States has been reduced to only them, the area beyond what the Enclave control's isn't United States soil anymore. This includes the purifier/Jefferson Memorial. The fact that they used to own it though, gives a pretty good casus belli.
See, I don't think that's entirely true. If the Enclave only "used to own" an area then they've got no rights to go to war over someone else using it. You also don't have the right to shoot someone who drives around in a car you "used to own". If the Enclave doesn't actually lay claim to all of the US, using their "inheritors of the US government" status as justification, then we're talking simple imperialism. Some people made something nice and now the Enclave wants it. That's plain theft, except at state level. No different from Saddam invading Kuwait for the oil, or Europeans messing around in Africa for gold, diamonds, and ivory.
Could be. If he decided to put his own people before that of wastelanders, I'd certainly view him in a better light.
Like I said, I'm Edenist. My only concern is the protection of the Enclave as a people, the wastelanders really don't concern me. Harsh? Yes, of course it is.
Funny thing is that we seem to agree quite a lot on what the Enclave stands for. Only major difference is, you're willing to kill human beings, at worst intelligent humanoid life, with total abandon. Is that sort of genocide what you stand for? If yes, do you really think your species is worth protecting?